Never Enough
by rlassie
Summary: Chris, yelling and angry. Chris, brooding and sulky. Chris, reminding his mother far too much of a son long gone. Will her worry and despair change that, or just make it worse? Can you really outshine the memory of the person you used to be? Changed future one-shot, slight backstory of romance, mentions of slash, M for a smattering of language.


**Never Enough**

Disclaimer: Don't own Charmed and don't own Chris. Either of them. More's the pity.

* * *

**A/N - Because I was missing a tormented, vulnerable Chris. Oh, and I did a little something different here compared to my other stories, so please do let me know what you think. Thanks so much for reading, everyone! :)**

* * *

Christopher Halliwell was not having a good day. Nothing seemed to be going his way, and no matter how hard he tried to fix it, whatever he did just ended up making it worse. As a result, he wasn't in a very good mood.

First off, and arguably the most important, his best friend was angry with him, and all because he'd voiced a concern over the man she'd just begun seeing. He'd only been trying to protect her – and that _wasn't _because he had feelings for her that went beyond friendship, like his Uncle Coop was constantly hinting he did. Yeah, okay, he _might_, he wasn't entirely sure if he did yet, but that didn't automatically make his biased against _everyone_ Beth dated. He'd liked that James dude, hadn't he? This most recent guy, though, was a real dickhead, but when he'd told Beth that, she hadn't been at all appreciative of the input.

He scowled as the attic formed around him, the blue glow that bathed the room fading as he solidified. On top of apparently not being allowed to have an opinion on the dating life of his _best friend_, his laptop had crashed about an hour earlier, taking with it an assignment that had taken him a month to research and write, and that was due first thing the next morning. He hadn't backed it up, either. He was thoroughly annoyed with himself, and extremely pissed at the useless piece of technology for failing right when he needed it most. And since no one in his family was at all tech savvy, he was going to have to hire someone to retrieve the files. To do _that_, he was going to have to draw from the money he'd been saving for a very important reason.

Chris was 23-years-old and still living at home. To move out, he needed money. To get money, he needed to work and to save. He'd been so close, and now, because of a single, stupid technology fail, a large chunk of those savings were gone. Just like that. It was frustrating and infuriating and it just made his mood that much darker.

_You wouldn't have to save so stringently if you just moved in with Wyatt,_ a little voice whispered in the back of his mind. Chris shook his head, his mouth folding into a stubborn line as he approached the Book. He wasn't going to intrude on his brother's happy little love nest, no matter how many times Wyatt and Collin said he was more than welcome. It had taken them so long to sort themselves out. Wyatt had known he was gay from basically the beginning of puberty, but Collin was another story, and that denial meant that Wyatt had had to spend a good four years wearing the stubborn man down. Chris refused to plant himself right in the middle of their finally contented togetherness.

They deserved their happiness without Wyatt's younger brother barging in and maybe rocking the boat.

He sighed as flipped open the cover and thumbed through the pages. If he couldn't work on his assignment, then maybe he could look up the demon his sister, mother and aunts were currently obsessed with. He didn't blame them. The bastard was luring girls at Melinda's college, seducing them and then stealing their life essence once he got them into bed. He needed to be stopped, but was remaining elusive, despite the vast power of the Charmed Ones and their offspring. They hadn't found him in the Book yet, but in the past, info had shown up randomly that hadn't been there the last time the family had looked, so maybe…

"Okay, this is becoming ridiculous. How can we not find him? It's not like he's a high level demon, for God's sake- oh."

Chris looked up at his mother's voice, irrational irritation snapping through him at the interruption. Confusing and concern quickly overshadowed it, however, at the look on Piper's face. She was standing in the doorway and staring at him blankly, eyes wide and startled. Paige was right behind her.

"Mom? What's wrong?"

Piper blinked a couple of times, his voice seemingly waking her up, and Chris's stomach swooped when immense sorrow twisted her features for just a second before it cleared.

"Chris. Umm, nothing, you just reminded me… never mind. What are you doing home?"

Feeling his swooping stomach churn and knot painfully, Chris quickly looked back down at the Book. He knew exactly what she'd been reminded of. It was one of the reason's he really wanted to get his own place. He loved his mother absurdly, he loved his whole family, but he didn't know how much longer he could handle living with a ghost.

He wasn't him. He wasn't. Future Chris had died the day present Chris had been born, but for as long as Chris could remember, the time traveller had been a constant presence in his family. Never gone. Never forgotten. That should've been a good thing, but when it's your tenth birthday and you walk into the kitchen to find your father holding your weeping mother, you realize rather quickly that it actually isn't.

He knew that it had nothing to do with him. Deep down, he did know the pain and anguish his parents were still feeling over Future Chris's death didn't change their feelings for the second son they had now at all. Whenever he saw Piper's puffy eyes or went searching for Leo and found him on top of the Golden Gate Bridge, grief surrounding him like a cloud, he usually either did his best to cheer them up, or just removed the reminder, a.k.a him, altogether for a while. But today had been a horrible day. He was upset and angry anyway because of his assignment, and then Beth had shouted at him, telling him to leave her the hell alone and that she didn't want him around at the moment, which had hurt a fuck load more than it really should've. So, for his mother to even for a second act like he wasn't the one she wanted either…

It was too much.

All those negative emotions swarmed up inside of him and he gripped the Book's stand so tightly, his knuckles turned white.

"I wanted to come home, okay? Am I not allowed to? So sorry I can't give you who you wanted."

Piper's eyes widened again, though for a completely different reason this time.

"Excuse me? I don't appreciate your tone, young man."

"Yeah, well, I don't appreciate being compared to someone else my entire life, but we all have to deal, don't we?" Chris sneered, anger and resentment burning through veins as he glared at his shocked mother.

"Chris! Dude, what bug jumped up your ass?" Paige snapped, sending him her own glare with her hands firmly planted on her hips. "Just because you're in a pisser of a mood, don't take it out on Piper!"

"Why the fuck not? She's been taking my inadequacy out on me my whole life!"

"Your inadequacy? Chris, what are you talking about?" Piper asked, eyes narrowing as she took a closer look, her anger morphing quickly to concern. Chris looked very upset. His usually bright green eyes were drowning in some type of strong, unreadable emotion, his body all but vibrating with it. Whatever it was, it was making him hurt badly, and that just wasn't acceptable. She took an anxious step forward. "What's wrong, peanut?"

"_Don't_ call me that!" Chris spat, hands fisting at his sides as he stepped around from behind the Book, face twisted with what, to Piper, looked very much like loathing. "I _hate_ that name!"

"But I've always called you that!" she cried in a frustrated tone, taking another step. She stopped abruptly, stunned when Chris stepped back from her. "You've never minded in the past!"

Because that single word made unbelievable hurt lance sharply through him, Chris did the only thing he could think of. He lashed out.

"The past? _The past? _It's not the fucking _past_! He's dead and gone, for Christ's sake, get that through your thick head! _I'm not him!"_

With that, he fled in a flurry of orbs, leaving his mother and aunt behind with their jaws on the floor.

~0~

Chris didn't like coming to the Golden Gate Bridge. It had never been his place, mainly because it had been the original Chris's, and Chris wanted to have as little to do with the other him as possible. He'd only ever come to retrieve his father, so hiding there really was the perfect place.

Everyone knew he didn't go there, so why would they look for him there now?

Surprisingly, he found himself relaxing slightly as he stared out over the water. He could see why the other him had liked it so much, why Leo still got Wyatt or Paige to orb him up there occasionally. The wind, the unknowing mortals chugging along in their day beneath him, the vast open Bay, the peace of it all sunk into Chris's heart and mind, calming him to the point where he realized just how stupid his outburst had been.

They knew he wasn't him. His parents knew Future Chris was dead. And they did love the Chris they had, too much had happened in his life to dispute that. Up until now, Piper and Leo hadn't known the way Chris felt about the original him, and their son had done everything he could to keep it that way.

The only two people who knew about the ugly bitterness that grew in the far reaches of Chris's mind were Wyatt and Beth. Not only was he a very private person, the young witch also hadn't wanted to hurt his parents more than they already were, so he'd kept that burden very much to himself. Now, though, it was all out in the open. It wouldn't take a genius to figure out what he'd been bellowing about. Piper and Leo were going to work out something Chris had kept from them from the moment he found out about the other him. And he despised himself for that.

His head turned when he caught the flare of blue out the corner of his eye, body tensing and then relaxing again when he saw who it was. He turned back to the view silently as his visitor walked over and took the spot beside him.

"So. Bad day, huh?" Wyatt asked after a moment, gaze also on the Bay. Chris let out a short, humourless laugh.

"You could say that," he muttered, glancing quickly at his brother. "How'd you find me?"

"You're my little brother, Chris, I'll always find you," the Twice Blessed answered serenely, scowling when his brother sniggered. "What?"

"You'll always find me? Corny much, bro?"

"Oh, cheesy as hell," Wyatt agreed with a grin, turning to his smiling brother and not letting the relief at seeing that expression show on his face. "But true, nonetheless. You can't hide from me, you know that. I sensed something was wrong an hour or two ago."

He leant over and nudged the younger man with his shoulder, grin growing when Chris groaned and muttered, "Christ, this family really doesn't know the definition of privacy."

"Hey, it goes both ways," the older witch pointed out cheerfully. "Weren't you around all the bloody time when Collin was giving me the run-around?"

Chris snorted again and the two settled into silence once more, though it wasn't nearly as tense this time. He could feel the expectancy, however. The second Halliwell son knew that his brother was waiting for him to bring up the reason for screaming at their mother. He just wasn't going to push. Wyatt Halliwell may not be patient when it came to demon hunting, Chris was forever having to make him wait until a plan had been formed, but with his family it was exactly the opposite.

And just like always, that patient expectancy did Chris's head in.

"So, ah, did you speak to Mom before you decided to invade my privacy?"

Wyatt hid his grin at the question. _There you go. Works every time. _

"I did," he confirmed, turning back to his brother to see him squirming slightly in his seat. "You've got them worried. You've spelled away their ability to scry for you and Mom's spent the last half hour reaching new levels of shrill because of it."

Chris sighed. "I know. I eventually put them all on mute."

His brother pursed his lips at that. "Hmm. You know they hate it when you do that, and I know I can't say much, as I do it at times myself. But it isn't really helping the situation at the moment. She's got Dad, Mel and the Aunts frantic as well, not to mention Beth."

"Beth?" Chris blurted, head swinging round in shock. "Why would they get her involved?"

"I don't think she give them a choice," Wyatt answered, watching his brother shrewdly. He knew exactly how Chris felt about the tiny blonde witch, even if Chris hadn't totally admitted it to himself yet, just as he knew how Beth had felt about Chris for the last seven years or so. Sometimes, inheriting Phoebe's gift of empathy had its upsides. "As soon as mom rung to see if you were with her, she demanded to know what was going on. She's been at the Manor ever since."

"Oh," Chris said faintly, turning back to the Bay as confusion tangled in his chest. She was angry with him. She'd said she didn't want to see him for a while, and Beth always meant what she said. He didn't know why… with as almost physical click, he threw the switch on his senses back to _on._

_GODDAMNIT, CHRISTOPHER, YOU BASTARD, STOP IGNORING ME! SINCE WHEN DID YOU GET YOUR KICKS OUT OF TERRIFYING EVERYONE? I'M SO GOING TO ANNIHILATE YOUR PUNY ASS THE SECOND I SEE YOU AGAIN, YOU STUPID, INFURIATING JERK! GOD, CHRIS, WHERE ARE YOU? ANSWER ME!_

Reeling from the onslaught, he flinched and hurriedly muted her again. Shit. Beth was _pissed. _And worried. That wasn't good. Though he hadn't heard his mother this time, Beth's call had been very similar to the ones Piper had been shouting earlier. He was really terrifying everyone? He hadn't meant to do that. He was just embarrassed about his outburst and had wanted some time to himself to sort it all out in his head.

"Yeah, oh," Wyatt agreed wryly, unaware of a certain witch yelling at his brother in his head. Silence reigned again for a while as Chris scrambled with his confusion, and then the Twice Blessed re-picked up the conversation. "So, wanna talk about what sent you running for the hills in the first place?"

"Not really," his brother sighed, still frowning.

"Well, too bad, lil' bro, because you're gonna," he countered, smirking when Chris turned to glower at him.

"If you weren't going to let me say no, why'd you ask the question?"

Wyatt grinned and shrugged. "How else was I going to bring up the subject?" His grin widened again when Chris rolled his eyes.

"Lord save me from weird older brothers," the younger Halliwell muttered, smiling slightly when Wyatt laughed. He took a deep breath and braced himself to ask a question that had been bugging him for quite a while.

"Do you remember him?"

"Who?" Wyatt frowned. "You mean the other you?"

"Who else?"

The older man's frown deepened at the bitter tone. "No, I don't. I wasn't any older than two when he was around, Chris. My first solid memory is of you falling out of that tree when you were three."

His brother didn't reply to that, but his eyes did flicker. So, Wyatt waited. It may take a while, but Chris would open up eventually. He always did. It was how he'd first found out that Chris had issues with the original him. Turning to contemplate the view, he thought that the younger man couldn't have picked a better place to brood. He'd orbed his father up there occasionally, but hadn't spent any specific amount of time above the Bay. He hadn't seen the point. Wyatt just wasn't a brooder, and that seemed to be Leo's only reason to visit.

"Am I ever going to be enough?"

The whisper broke him from his reverie abruptly and he swung back round to stare at Chris in shock. Talk about opening up! The other witch was staring out at the Bay as well, but he wasn't seeing it. His eyes were haunted.

"Chris?"

"They loved him. Yeah, I know they love me too," he said when Wyatt opened his mouth to protest. "But they loved him first and they lost him. He saved the world and they lost their son. How am I ever going to live up to that? Will they forever compare me to him? I'm not him. Will I ever be enough?"

Wyatt gaped. He'd known those issues ran deep, but he'd had no clue, _no clue,_ just how deep they ran. Fuck, what did he say to that?

"I think," he began slowly, picking over his words, "I think that maybe you're the one who's comparing you to him. Mom and Dad might, yeah, I won't deny that, but not as much as you do, Chris. They love you. They love _you. _You are their son. You're right, you're not him, you're your own person. There isn't really anything to compare. Do they compare you and me?"

"No, but they don't mourn every time they look at you, do they?" Chris answered in a very small voice. Wyatt sighed and slung his arm over his brother's shoulder.

"I don't know what to say to you, Chris. I really don't. This isn't something within my range of experience. But there are two people who'll know _exactly_ what you're going through. You only have to broach the subject."

As if on cue, a section of space behind them glowed blue, and both Halliwells turned to see Paige, Leo and Piper collate into being. Chris stiffened at the sight and then quickly turned back to the view, mind in turmoil. Wyatt glanced at him, his arm tightening.

"Remember, you'll never feel better if you just let everything sit and stew in its own juices," he murmured before getting up and walking towards his parents. He smiled at them softly when they sent him hopeful looks. "I leave him in your capable hands. Shall we, my lady?"

Paige laughed and shook her head, taking his offered arm. "You know, nephew, it really is a pity you're gay. No, come to think of it, maybe that's a good thing. You'd leave the female population in tatters if you swung their way."

Wyatt sent her a quick, charming grin and then, with worried glance at Chris and a comforting rub of her sister's arm, the youngest Charmed One and the Twice Blessed orbed away, leaving mother, father and son alone in a heavy silence.

~0~

Chris knew they were staring at him. Even with his back turned, he could feel their gazes, worry and anxiety all but drenching the atmosphere. He didn't say anything. He didn't know what to say. He'd shouted enough as it was, he _really_ didn't want to make the situation worse.

Even over the wind, he heard his mother sigh when he continued to keep his back to them, and he was unable to help himself stiffening again when he felt their presence's move. He could see it in his head, Leo's grip tightening on Piper's hand as he drew her over to the support beam to settle down against it. He could feel them at his back. They'd always had his back, he knew that. But that just somehow made it hurt all the more.

"Chris," his mother murmured softly, pain in her tone, and then her hand was resting just under his shoulder blade, the heat from it spreading through his system. Chris went completely rigid. He couldn't help it. Piper's fingers tensed for a moment and then relaxed as she sighed. "Oh, honey."

"Did you find me the same way Wyatt did?" Chris asked hurriedly, a desperate attempt to divert the conversation. He didn't want to talk about this. He really didn't.

"We did," Leo confirmed quietly, his voice drifting across to Chris on the wind. "We may not have figured it out as quickly as he did, your brother has the uncanny ability to always know what's going on with you, but we did realize where you were eventually."

"Obviously."

"Yes, obviously," Leo smiled, sharing a look with his wife at the sarcastic drawl. They were so alike. But at the same time, so very different.

There was silence again for the longest time after that. Chris wanted nothing more than to orb away, to run from the elephant in the room. To not have to deal with this. To not have to deal with _him. _He sighed and Piper's hand spasmed almost uncertainly against his back, before gently beginning to rub.

"We love you, Chris. So much."

He knew that. _He knew that_. His chest tightened and his throat swelled.

"But not as much as him."

The words were out before he even realized they were sitting on his tongue. He scowled as Piper's hand froze and she gasped.

"Chris, no, that's not true at all!"

"Isn't it?" he asked softly, flicking a glance back over his shoulder before quickly turning away again.

"No! Leo, tell him!"

"Why… why do you think that, son?" his father asked carefully instead of complying with her request. Chris smiled to himself at the question, the expression sardonic. No denial from him. Deep down, he hadn't expected there to be. He'd always suspected the Leo's feelings for the other Chris had been complicated and somehow more intense than Piper's had. It was as if he'd been determined to love him harder.

"Chris?"

His mouth twisted and then he sighed again. Well, why not? He'd gone this far, hadn't he?

"You mourn when you look at me. Especially lately. I look just like he did when he died and you see him every time you look in my eyes. You never see me. You love me, yeah, but him… he _died._ He died for you, he died for Wyatt, he died for the entire fucking world. I can't compete with that. Nothing I do would be good enough. I'm not good enough. I'm just not enough altogether."

His voice never got above a rough whisper and afterwards, the silence behind him was huge. Chris took a deep breath, feeling surprisingly light. It had been sitting like a stone in his chest for so long, that it was almost freeing to let it out. For them to know that he knew. Now, maybe, they could all deal with it. He wasn't expecting them to change, but maybe if they just-

Chris was abruptly jerked from his preoccupied thoughts by a pair of determined hands grasping his shoulders and tugging him around. He didn't even have time to open his mouth to protest before the hands became arms, wrapping tightly around him and pulling him in. He blinked a couple of times in shock, and then his throat suddenly tightened, his eyes burned, and without him realizing he was going to do it, his arms banded around her in return, squeezing his mother so forcefully, it was almost painful.

_Oh, God. I don't… fuck, I don't… Mom._

Piper didn't protest. Her arms tightened as well, a fine tremble in the hand that reached up to slowly brush through his hair. Chris squeezed his eyes shut as he felt another hand grasp his shoulder, squeeze and then trail down to press urgently against his back.

_Dad…_

"Chris, I'm so very sorry. So very, very sorry. I had no idea you felt that way. Why didn't you tell us? There's nothing to compare, nothing to compete with, honey. I'm sorry we made you feel like there was. Yes, we loved him, and yes, he died, but _you're_ here. _You're_ our son, and we love you. We're so damn proud of you, Christopher, of who you've turned out to be. I'll admit, it's hard at times to look at you and see someone we used to love, but don't you ever think that we don't see you, my sweet boy. Don't you ever think that you're not enough. _Ever,_ you hear me? It's simply not true. It never was and it never will be."

"Why do you mourn him so hard, then?" Chris muttered against her breast, teeth clenched as he fought the painful emotions tearing at his insides. How could he live up to someone they cry for on every one of his birthdays? Especially his 23rd. Christ, it didn't want to _think_ about that day.

"That has a lot to do with guilt, son," Leo answered, voice low and gravelly. "We treated him terribly before we knew who he was. Then, when we did find out, we had so little time to make up for it. Our actions just enforced the horrible childhood he had, and it hurts quite a lot, not knowing if we did enough to make him realize how much he was loved. It's not just him we mourn. It's that world and that time and everything he had to go through. He didn't deserve the life he lived. At all."

"Please don't think that we loved him more than we love you," Piper continued in a whisper when her husband broke off, having to clear his throat. "What we felt for him was strong and powerful, but it was in part motivated by remorse and guilt and also in part by obligation. We only had nine or so months with him, Chris-"

"I had even less than that," Leo muttered.

"-but we've had 23 years with you. We _know_ you. We didn't know him, not really. He wouldn't allow us to. You're our son and if given a choice, we wouldn't have it any other way."

Chris didn't say anything to that. He didn't know if he believed them. Sensing this, Piper let out an anxious little noise that died off into a sigh.

"What can we do to convince you?"

"I… I think I really need to move out."

The suddenness of the jerk surprised it as much as it had the first time, and Chris suddenly found himself peering into his mother's panicked eyes as her hands clutched at his shoulders.

"What? No! Not because of this!"

"I think it's a good idea."

"_Leo!"_ Piper shrieked, head snapping round to glare at him, anger fairly buzzing across her skin. "How can you say that?"

"Think about it, Piper," the former Elder said quietly, his pained green eyes on Chris, who was staring resolutely at the beam beneath him, not looking at either of his parents. "Looking at Chris and seeing the other Chris has become a very bad habit over the years, and it's probably going to be a hard one to break. It's too ingrained, and it isn't healthy, for any of us. Chris needs a life of his own and he won't be able to get one if we are, in his mind, constantly looking at him and comparing him to a him from another life. He needs space. And frankly, I think we do, too."

His wife's mouth fell open. "_Space? _He's my _son!"_

"Yes, he is, but he's also one who we've been unknowingly hurting for a long time, Piper! I love him just as much as you do, and I don't want him to go either, it's the very _last_ thing I want, but if he continues to live at home and we see him all day, if we see _him_ 24/7, it may just make things worse! I won't do that to him any longer! I _can't_!"

Leo took a deep, unsteady breath as his voice faded. Piper was staring at him incredulously, but as he continued to hold her gaze, eyes firm, her expression crumbled and she reached up with a still-trembling hand to rub her forehead.

"God, sometimes I _hate_ being a witch."

Leo sighed. "I know, love," he said as he reached for her and drew her against his side, tucking her into him. "It sucks at times. But Chris isn't going to go far, he really isn't. He's going to move in with Wyatt. Aren't you, Chris?"

He looked over at his youngest son and felt a sharp jolt run through him. Chris was staring at him and the expression in his eye… _hope. _Hope was burning in his gaze, the green intensely bright. Leo swallowed hard and held out his hand to him.

"Chris? Aren't you?"

"A-ah, yeah, I guess I am," Chris answered in a rough voice, taking the offered hand and allowing himself to be pulled to his father's side. "Collin's been practically begging me to, anyway. I think maybe he needs the buffer."

Piper let out a watery laugh and Chris smiled slightly, his shoulder pressed against his father's. They sat like that for a while, staring out at the Bay, the silence sparking with a silent relief, until a large gust of wind blew over them and made all three shiver.

"Okay, I think it's time to head home," Piper said, pulling from Leo's arms and standing up. "Not that it isn't lovely up here, but we do have other family members to placate. Chris, if you would?"

She held out her hand and Chris reached for it, more than ready to go home. Everything wasn't suddenly all hunky-dory of course, one talk couldn't fix it all at once, but at least they had begun. He was feeling better, and he thought that maybe with moving out of the house and beginning his own life away from the ghosts of the past, things might just keep improving.

A thought occurred to him and sighed to himself, shaking his head. Wyatt was going to be infuriating smug when he found out he was right about the whole talking thing.

"Chris?"

Turning to his father, Chris raised a brow in question. "Yeah?"

"You say you're not him? You're right, you're not. And I couldn't be any more pleased about that fact."

The Elder-turned-mortal walked over and put his hand on Chris's arm as the younger man's eyes widened in surprise.

"He was my son and I loved him, but he was… he was dark, son. Angry and sarcastic all the time, bitter and oftentimes cruel. Cynical and hard. I know most of that was because of the world he grew up in, but you have no idea, _no _idea_,_ how happy I am that you didn't turn out like that. That you grew up happy, healthy and loved. So, no, you aren't him. Not even in the slightest."

Once again, Chris stared. Then, slowly, for the first time that day, he truly smiled.

~0~

"Oh, I'm so going to kill the jerk, I so am, just you wait until I get my hands on him- CHRIS!_"_

As the three Halliwells formed in the attic, Chris abruptly found his arms full of tiny blonde witch. Beth threw herself at him the instant she saw him, immediately beginning to curse him as her arms viced around his neck and her face burrowed into his chest.

"You stupid asshole, how could you go off like that without telling anyone where you were going? Do you have _any_ clue how worried I was? I sorry we fought and then you fought again with Piper, but you can't just run off like that! I should kick your ass for scaring me, you idiotic, immature buffoon! Irresponsible, stubborn, brainless douche!"

Staring down at the railing creature in his arms, something in Chris's his heart and mind suddenly clicked, shocking him for a moment before making him grin widely. Well, then. If that's the way it was… he reached down, lifted Beth's chin with his fingers and then abruptly slanted his mouth over hers, shutting her up immediately.

He then proceeded to kiss the living daylights out of her, ignoring the whistles and catcalls from his family and Wyatt and Melinda in particular. Once he was satisfied that he'd stopped her tirade, he pulled back just as inch, met her blurred blue eyes and then ghosted in lips across her cheek to her ear.

"You're not seeing that jackass anymore. You'll be too busy seeing me instead. And my ass isn't puny, thank you very much," he whispered, nipping at her lobe. Beth shuddered and then drew away from him, searching his eyes as he grinned at her. Slowly, her own grin grew to match his.

"I think I'll be the judge of that," she said, and Chris laughed as she pulled his head back down to kiss him again. He kissed her back and then once they broke apart, drew her around against him, his arm firmly around her waist as his eyes flicked around the room. His aunts, uncles and cousins were variating between grinning and rolling their eyes at the two of them, the younger ones mainly pulling faces of disgust. Coop, in particular, was sending him a knowing smile. Chris grimaced at him and then smiled goofily back. Wyatt and Melinda were sharing knowing looks of their own, and Wyatt was holding out his hand to his sister, who was begrudgingly removing her wallet from her pocket. Chris snorted as Collin watched his partner indulgently. She hadn't really bet against an empath, had she?

Melinda placed a twenty-dollar bill in Wyatt's hand. Apparently, she had.

Shaking his head, he looked over and his parents, pleased when he saw the happiness on their faces. Leo was holding Piper in much the same way Chris was holding Beth, but there were tears on his mother's cheeks. Raising a brow at her in concern, Piper just shook her head, sniffed and reached up a hand to wipe them away, before sending him a beaming smile. Neither she nor Leo were doing anything to tone down their approval. Chris smiled slowly back as Beth's fingers snuck under his shirt to graze along his ribs, then sighed as he leaned down to kiss the top of her head. He was actually a little surprised at the strength of the happiness rushing warmly through him.

Maybe the day hadn't turned out to be a bad one after all.


End file.
